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A comment on English is relatively easy to learn, but not to master (2018). Parent comment

Re:English is relatively easy to learn, but not to master (2... by necrobrit on Sunday March 28, 2021 @04:52AM (#26608891)
I can immediately think of a counter example: corps vs corpse. Literally from the same word origin, wildly different pronunciation.
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Re:English is relatively easy to learn, but not to master (2... by fiddlerwoaroof on Sunday March 28, 2021 @06:52AM (#26609304)
That’s not a counter-example: the Latin root “corpus” was borrowed through French twice: once in the 16th century (corps) and once in Middle English (first corse, then corpse). This is a case of path-dependence: the newer borrowing is pronounced more like French while the older one has been regularized.
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